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simmball
§0A working paper, continuously revisedrev. 2026.10

From simmsto symbols.

SIMMBALL is a studio that builds its own AI services and web apps, and writes essays where AI meets philosophy, aesthetics and the humanities. In Hofstadter’s careenium, tiny marbles called simms clump into simmballs and begin to mean something. We try to build software the same way.

Fig. 1 — The careenium, seen from above. Nine simms careen; four stop being simms. D. R. Hofstadter, I Am a Strange Loop (2007).

Products the simms.

All products
  1. Specimen 1.1

    Koestler AI

    Argues against your decisions, and checks your AI agents' risky moves before they run.

    Function
    Adversarial decision partner and agent gate
    Stage
    1. Coming soon
    2. Beta— clumping
    3. Live
    Try it at koestler.ai

Essays one level up.

All essays
  1. Plate I
    Philosophy · 2026.10.02 · 5 minWhy SIMMBALL:from simms to symbolsOn Hofstadter's careenium, why a symbol happens one level up, and why we named a company after a clump of tiny marbles.Read